Lucifers Hero

That is most unlike you Layzie. And here I was thinking you are a kind fellow! 😉

I get the frustration. I feel all members deserve the right to finals tickets. They are 3 game or interstate members for a reason ie they can't get to games but at least they are contributing to the club. My issue is mainly the 10 tickets per member and especially if they are for non members. It should be like the GF: If you have a Category 1 entitlement but want to buy a GF ticket for people with a lower category entitlement, your category 1 drops to theirs and can only book when their window opens. And non members go into the 'Public' ticket time slot. So if a member wants to book them together they go into the 'Public' time slot as they would for the GF. I would generally say that all members should be equally entitled to a finals ticket regardless of level of membership. However, given that there was a 'Premium Members' option on Ticketek that should have been reserved for such members and then ONLY ONE TICKET PER MEMBER so that all members classified as 'premium' could get a so called premium ticket. I see no point of a 'premium member' option if one premium member can get another 9 tickets which could be for non-members ie those who contribute nothing to the club. If it was run properly there may not be a need for a 'premium member' option as there would be no problem getting premium seats if someone wants to pay for them and if the first window of ticket sales was truly members only without the 10 ticket option.

I had it partly ready. Was waiting for their 'official preview' Since requests have been made see

Comments from the earlier 'Unofficial Preview' thread: Melbourne should be more scared of us than we are of them Interesting Melbourne with 11 total games against final top 8. What a s**t fixture. Get every Swan to look at this guys (Gawn’s) face, convince them that it is a really bad idea to kick the ball high to a teammate if this man is also near that teammate. Not worried about him. He dominated last time and we won. It’s the rest we have to fear but I think we match up so well against them. It will drive me insane if we kick it to the big bald bloke all game long Yes we beat them once and at this ground but that was ages ago. We are a different team then, probably better tbf but as they showed over the weekend that when they can go, boy they go. Our best wins and we will need to bring it all game Feeling a career best game from Isaac, reckon he is primed to explode... The Grand Final last year showed this Melbourne team is a finals team. No one can have an off game Not just the grand final. They won all three of their finals by an average of 63 points. And it's no wonder when they have names like Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, May... these are players who will be seen as greats of their generation in their respective positions, especially the first two. Very dominant finals campaign reminded me of Richmond 2017 run. 42 inches of snow cover at Mt Buller. I suspect there’ll be plenty of tickets available. Will we adopt our Freo game style of short kicks down the field to avoid Gawn, May and Lever? We have the ability to not get drawn into their gameplan. The fact we are adaptable is what will set us apart, if we match them at the clearances we should be able to win but if we allow Gawn, Petracca and Oliver to get on top it'll be a blood bath Not really happy with the prospect of facing either Brisbane or Tigers if we don't win this one. Not confident about beating the Dees either, they looked unstoppable before half time against the Brions. Hope we're not out in straight sets... The key will be pressure, even if we don't win first use, we shouldn't allow them the time & space to get easy inside 50s. If we put enough pressure, we'll create that turnover game our defence loves. I also don't care if Trac & Oliver get a ton of possessions because their ball use is pretty average May back for Melbourne is the biggest change from that game. He's really the lynchpin of the demons Break works to our favour. Our Young kids are tiring out and need the refresh. The Dees have awesome form but now have a bye to stop their momentum. Gut running and fitness will be key on the expanses of the G as will breaking even in the centre clearances. I say we win. My favourites It feels really weird to be genuinely terrified of an opponent but also very confident we can knock them off. Even if we lose, I’ll still have Essendon’s comical misery to cheer me up.

Their Official Preview thread started last night is cheekily titled: Melbourne Vs Sydney - Mount Buller Financial Woes and starts with: I want everyone to stop thinking about football for one second and feel for those who are running the resorts and ski fields at Mount Buller, since Covid Melbourne have managed to break our previous norms and become one (rather incredible) football team. So of course instead of spending their hard money on a September ski trip, they are now putting it towards grand final packages and finals tickets (with Damn good reason), this has robbed a key Victorian attraction of a financial resource. So if you have some spare coin, please consider donating it to a Carlton or North Melbourne fans get away, you all know the people of Mount Buller need it. I thought that was rather cheeky but gracious! The Official Preview (condensed version): Where the match will be won: decided not out of the middle, but due to which team can bring greater pressure over the entire four quarters. If Sydney can maintain their manic pressure from some of our recent matches (Not the St Kilda and North matches) this will go a long way to deciding the final outcome. Melbourne have an elite inside game with some of the best contested bulls in the league, but if we can place these players under pressure, then their disposal out of the stoppage could be rushed and will greatly benefit our turnover/ skills based kicking game. Key Battles Mills vs Oliver - Got a gut feeling that this will be a key head to head match-up. If Mills can break even here and hurt Oliver in the other direction we will be immediately put on the front foot. Franklin vs May - Usually when it comes to Franklin match ups it is purely about the opposition somehow stopping him, this week though I have a slightly different proposition. Franklin will need to lead May away from the contest a lot this week and if May is at the contest I want to see Franklin break away then hurt him in the other direction. May being out was a huge loss for Melbourne last game, I would rather not see this repeat again. Team defence vs Melbourne Forward Line - Melbourne rotate a lot of different players through their forward line and outside of Ben Brown (Tom McCartin's likely match up), their players don't stay stationary. We will have to be on our toes and commit to a zone style of defence to break them apart (Which I honestly believe we can do). Final Thoughts If we can weather the early Melbourne storm at both the start of the match and after half time (This is a hard ask), then I honestly believe we can win this match of football. Melbourne have been rather inconsistent over the back part of the year and whilst they were impressive last week, Brisbane were also not the side they were earlier in the year. Final Prediction: Sydney by 23 points Other comments on the 'Official Preview' thread; Great preview Bonz, great to see you back in fine sledging form with your titles! Sh---ing myself. Hate this sport. Very confident. Good to have a stress free week and a bit. Melbourne have had a tough draw in the second half of the year and have been found wanting at times. However, they were pretty good last weekend against the Lions. Will be a tough game and hopefully we don’t start slow after the week off. Sydney by a point. Given that Clayton Oliver had nearly as many clearances as the other 43 players combined in the Brisbane game, I dare say limiting his influence is key. Particularly given our own centre clearance woes. Rowy, meet Clayton Clayton Oliver scares the absolute s**t out of me. He's just this freak of nature who does not stop, and can not be stopped. All you can do is hope to drag him down from ridiculously dominant to just "good". Rowbottom made that happen last time. Melbourne owe us for Paul Roos turning that [censored] around I think their best is still the league best to be honest Wake me up in 4 weeks so I can watch our grand final highlights. My favourite: Given that Clayton Oliver had nearly as many clearances as the other 43 players combined in the Brisbane game, I dare say limiting his influence is key. Particularly given our own centre clearance woes. Rowy, meet Clayton Comments from their earlier 'Unofficial Preview' thread in the next post.

Exceeding 70K will depend on AFL members. We don't have many and that stand is generally rather empty when we play i/state teams. I doubt Sydney have many AFL members. The crowd could easily be 80% demon fans and we will make quite a noise!

It will be one day shy of three weeks when we play the QF so will he not be ok?

Good on Eagles. If nothing else it makes Freo sit up and take notice and devise a decent trade!

dear '55, That gave me a real belly laugh. I needed it after a frustrating day! Thank you.

@dworshipThanks. That is weird. Every time I clicked on an 'available' bay it didn't show what seats were available; it just sent me to some other bay in a whole different part of the ground. Happened about 3 or 4 times. FOMO set in and I gave up trying to get seats in what looked like 'available' bays and took what the computer generated.

There is a hiatus between 2 and 3 pm when Members sales ended and General Public opens.

The map appears on Ticketek but while it allows you to click on a bay when the actual tickets come up they are somewhere else completely. Were you able to get tickets allocated in the bay you selected on the map?

Is the Ginnivan nomination some sort of 'peace offering' or consolation!!😐

That was fine when MFC members were locked out of SA and WA due to covid. Presumably the non-member extras would still buy tickets at 2.00pm in the General Allocation rather than be allowed tickets in the 10.00 am slot advertised as 'Member Pre-Sale', so it shouldn't affect attendances. Maybe they should do what Collingwood did and have the 10.00 time for P1 members then 10.30 for other members. General Allocation later in the day What we have is just not fair.

I would say not.

Did you eventually get through on the laptop?

Anyone else find that it takes forever to get through on a laptop but reasonably quickly on a mobile device? Can't understand why...

M15 is ground level. Is that your question? I think level 4 is Q

It is toward the back but you will be under cover (the 'drip line' is Row Y) and protected from the wind. Far better than the exposed P and Q.

Agree. It is not the members fault at all. Good luck to your mate as that is what the rules allow. The club/AFL could have a smaller non-member allowance like the 2018 Geelong game. I would feel ok if it was just one or two extras but 10 is ridiculous. Let the non-members wait till the 'General Allocation' opens in a few hours. We should email the club and let them know our discontent. The folks in membership work hard and don't set the rules so I will play nice in the wording. But I'm Not Happy, Jan!!

If people want 10 tickets for one membership they should have to wait until the 'General Public' allocation opens. In the morning it should be members only!! I only wanted a ticket for 2 Redlegs members which eventually I did get but no where near where I would have liked. Very annoying if they have gone to non-members. God help us if we meet Coll or Rich in a final. If that happens I'll get up with the birds and walk to the local Newsagent who is also a Ticketek outlet.

So frustrating! Club's 'Finals Hub' says to get out and support players at training. So I emailed them and asked when and where training would be held. This was the response: Thank you for your email. Further information will be posted on the finals hub once available. We cannot provide any details at this stage. We look forward to seeing you cheer on the red and blue!' The Finals Hub page says: Information on Open Training sessions will be available in the coming days. Why encourage us to go to training then not tell us where it is. @kev martinThanks for going and I look forward to your reports.

Very confusing, indeed. Going on at 9.50 may not help as Ticketek cuts you out after 10 minutes so it leaves little time to do the transaction. The countdown clock is on the top right of the Ticketek page. Not sure when Ticketek starts queuing or what happens if people log on before 10.00 This won't be a sell out and not all the good seats will go straight away.

A slight preference for a weekday, thank you. But happy to go with what others would like, just a heads up on when it will appear is enough for me.

They are different issues to what I was responding to ie the concern that Geelong had double up games vs North and Eagles thus putting us at a disadvantage. Our draw featured double up games with similar 2021 ladder placings: Coll and Freo. The 2022 draw for the teams played looked quite even when it was done in late 2021. Like us Geelong had double up games vs Port and Bulldogs. Our 5th double up game was Lions and Geelong's was St Kilda. So from the teams selected to play this year it looked quite similar. Having said that, yes I agree there are so many anomalies which give various teams advantages and others disadvantages.